Duped: The Dark Side of Online Business

The Grift Halftime Report

It's halftime, and the online business industry is still running the same plays. This season, we watched old grifts make a comeback, influencers continue replacing expe

Celebrity Entrepreneurship: New Faces, Same Old Playbook

Celebrity entrepreneurship didn't disappear. It just got a rebrand. The flashy gurus may be gone, but the playbook is alive and well…now it's just wrapped up in persona

The Grift of Audience Growth: 2026 Edition

It's 2026, and people are still selling the fantasy that you can throw up a course, membership, or low-ticket offer and make easy money online.  What do they leave out?

The Income Claim Cycle (And Why It's Worse Right Now)

Suddenly, everyone online is having their "biggest month ever." More money. Less effort. Faster results. And somehow, this flood of income claims is happening at the ex

Why We Trust Influencers Over Experts & What It Costs

Why are we taking advice from people we've never actually vetted? They feel familiar. They feel trustworthy. And that's exactly the problem!  Inspired by Michelle's T

Amanda Frances and The Worship of Wealth

What happens when a money manifestation coach tries to sell her beliefs to an audience that doesn't already buy in? When Amanda Frances stepped onto The Real Housewives

2025 Year in Review

2025 didn't end the grifting….it exposed it. This was the year accountability was rebranded as "mean girl marketing," trust became a trendy talking point instead of a l

You Can't Sit With Us: Inside Mean Girl Marketing

There's a new kind of online business drama in town, and it's not girlbossing. It's "Mean Girl Marketing." Is "mean girl marketing" actually a problem? Where did it com

Everyone's an AI Expert Now (Except…They're Not)

AI "experts" are multiplying faster than the tech itself — but most of them are just three prompts ahead of you. And when AI touches your data, your clients, and your e

The Grift of Program Promises

Everywhere you look in online business, someone's promising the moon — a 6-figure month, a personality overhaul, maybe even a cellular glow-up. But here's the real ques

Everybody's Lying (and We're All Tired of It)

Scroll your feed, watch the news, open your inbox — and you'll see why we're in the middle of a Trust Recession.  Everyone's performing honesty, but few are actually te

The Rise of the Doubt Economy

Have you seen a "certainty in uncertain times" coach or a web celeb selling the "only strategy that still works in 2025"? That's not just cringe, it's a warning sign. T

The Cult of the Web Celeb

Ever been captivated by a coach who seemed too good to be true—magnetic, inspiring, and totally authentic—only to find yourself questioning how you ended up spending thou

The Cult of Oversharing

Ever felt weird reading someone's sales email—like you just got trauma-dumped by a stranger? You're not imagining it. Vulnerability has become a marketing currency, and

The Very Tired Tropes of Online Business: 2025 Edition

Online business may keep rebranding itself, but the tropes?  They never die—they just get slicker.  In this episode, we're walking down memory lane and revisiting The

Inception: Online Business Edition

Have you ever noticed how people online teach others to do the exact thing they have just learned? Coaches coaching coaches. Creators teaching creators. Influencers tea

Hoodwinked: How Cult Marketing Took Over Your Feed with Dr. Mara Einstein

What do MLMs, cults, and online coaches have in common? A whole lot of manipulation. In this episode of Duped, we sit down with author and marketing critic Dr. Mara Ein

AI and the Enshittification of Everything

Remember when the internet felt fun, helpful—even inspiring? Yeah, us too. But lately? It's feeling more like a digital junk drawer.  In this episode of Duped, we're

The BFF Next Door: The Most Dangerous Celebrity Entrepreneur in 2025

She cries on camera. Wears hoodies. Says she's just like you, right before pitching her five-figure course. She's the BFF Next Door. And in 2025, she's not just relatab

2024 Year End Wrap Up

2024 was a wild ride and, for many, incredibly economically challenging. So, what exactly went down this year?  In this episode of Duped, we're diving in for a 2024 y